


Missed Messages

by Koren M (CyberMathWitch)



Category: Hawkeye (Comics)
Genre: F/M, First Time, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Voicemail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-08
Updated: 2013-07-08
Packaged: 2017-12-18 03:15:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/875004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyberMathWitch/pseuds/Koren%20M
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were a lot of ways they could screw this up all on their own - they really didn't need everyone else's help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missed Messages

**Author's Note:**

  * For [redbrunja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbrunja/gifts).



> For redbrunja, who prompted _Clint Barton/Kate Bishop, messages Kate has left on Clint's answering machine._

The two months after they finally sleep together are the two longest months of Kate's life.

Because the only thing worse than having a one-night stand with your best friend/partner/whatever-they-are and things being kind of awkward?

Is having a one-night stand with your best friend/partner/whatever-they-are that's making things kind of awkward, and _not being able to talk to them about it_.

*****

_Clint? Pick up the phone, Clint. No, seriously. I know you're sitting there, looking at it, and listening to this and thinking that you've screwed things up again, but you haven't. **We** haven't, **unless you decide to stop talking to me**. That would kind of screw things up. Pick up the phone, doofus. Clint? Damn it._

*****

She thinks it was probably one of the stupider things they've done - not that it happened but _how_ it happened. Mostly because of the timing. The sex itself was _fantastic_ just like she'd suspected it would be. But the timing was crap. 

They'd been up all night long fighting crime and she'd brought up the phone call and his stupid "I don't want to sleep with you" because after the adrenaline buzz she was in a good mood and exhausted but not sleepy and she'd wanted to tease him about it. He was supposed to have a sarcastic retort and laugh it off like always. Instead, a serious look had crossed his face, one that said, "oh shit, she caught me".

And then she'd kind of pushed and he'd kind of caved, because apparently she wasn't the only one who sometimes stayed awake thinking about what they would be like together in bed.

They'd fallen asleep afterward, pretty much immediately, because exhausted. Then the ringing of the telephone (and she might never, _ever_ forgive Tony just on general principle) woke them up and said he needed Clint's help, and there hadn't been any time to have the sort-of-awkward-wow-what-did-we-do? conversation right then. When it would've been only _sort of_ awkward instead of suffocatingly bad.

*****

_Yo, bossman. Pick up, will ya? I know I just left a message, but honest-to-god if you're there pick up the damn phone this is important and not even about the other thing. Not only. I'd come over there and make you talk to me except Teddy got a call from Eli and he's in some kind of trouble and needs our help and I have to go. I'm not-_

*****

_Stupid goddamn answering machine. I was trying to say I'm not running away. Not like **running away** running away, I just have to go do this thing and I don't know how long we'll be gone. Yes, I can appreciate the irony here. ... ... ... Seriously Clint. Pick up the phone._

*****

The way Clint figures it, this is the universe's way of letting them both down easy, without the same kind of spectacular _badness_ that normally happens, maybe in deference to Kate. The universe kind of owes her, right? So it figures that they would fall apart with a whimper rather than a bang.

He comes home from taking out an AIM team in Madrid, and spends the next 24 hours in a virtual coma because _god_. A man needs to sleep sometime, ever. And then Fury calls with a SHIELD thing, and he's on his way out the door when he sees the damn message light blinking on his machine. There are three messages, and he's halfway through the second one when the agents Fury sent over show up on his damned balcony and do that stupid "scoop and run" thing they like to do.

Maybe, he thinks while he's in a quinjet on his way to the back end of nowhere, if they spend some time apart, it'll be easier to just laugh it off as a one-time thing when they both get back. 

*****

_We're back in town and I know I don't have great cell reception **in space** (god that mission sucked) but I just checked my voicemail and you still haven't called me back. You're being an idiot. I stopped by the apartment and you weren't there and I figure you weren't just intentionally avoiding me since you had no idea I was even on the same planet as you, **but you have a phone**. At least give me a call or something?_

*****

By the third week he's there, Clint thinks that if he never sees the Savage Land again, it'll still be too soon.

*****

_So Spidey says that Fury called you guys around the same time we left? So maybe you haven't actually been avoiding me, although you still haven't called, and unless you're in Antarctica or something, that's still not cool. I picked up Lucky from Simone's. I'll see you when you get back._

*****

After Kate gets Lucky she spends the next several days camping out at Clint's apartment. She tells her team that it's to take care of the dog since there's no telling when Clint will be back. She tells herself the same story, except for when she's curled up in his bed around one of his pillows because it still smells kind of like him, and she knows it's because she's worried and she misses his sorry ass.

*****

_What the hell does Fury have you doing? We've gotta go do another thing. I dropped Lucky off at Aimee's 'cause Simone's out of town. I'll stop by when the world stops ending. Again._

*****

Two months - two _literal_ months, is all Kate can think when she finally lets herself into Clint's apartment and sees him lying on the couch with an ice pack on his face and a bottle of water in his hand.

Other than the fresh cuts and bruises, and the cast on his ankle, he doesn't look any different. She's not sure why she thinks he should, except _two months_. She doesn't remember the last time they'd gone quite that long without seeing one another. Except wait, yeah, probably California. That time was bad.

"Hey," she starts, and can't think what smartass thing to finish up with.

"Er, hi," he replies. 

Kate perches on the opposite arm of the couch, so that she's facing him and he doesn't have to move too much. From the color of the bruise around his eye, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. "Had any aspirin yet?"

"A couple. Maybe an hour ago. I'll take something else in a little while."

"It's gonna swell shut," she offers helpfully.

"It already has," he mutters, wincing when she nudges the foot that's not in a cast. "That one's just sprained," he explains, and she gets that look on her face, the one that says _what do I even do with you?_.

"You don't have it wrapped."

"Hadn't gotten that far yet. I've only been here, maybe two hours? Random suit #5 dropped me off after we got back."

Kate rolls her eyes and gets up before he can protest and goes to find the bandages. This time when she comes back she gingerly moves the broken ankle off the couch, eyeing the way he winces when she bends his knee and making a mental note to get more ice packs when she's done. There's probably still the ancient package of lima beans they used last time in the freezer. The way he reacted she'd bet good money there's some bruising beneath the butchered sweats he's managed to pull on over the cast. She sits down next to the sprained ankle and inspects it before she starts to wrap it up.

"Ow! Damn it, that hurts!" 

She's seen him grit his teeth through bullet wounds and life threatening injuries in the field, but once they're home and it's something small, he can whine with the best of them. Which is pretty much why she lets him get away with it without clocking him sometimes.

"Shush, you're being a baby," she murmurs, but it's more affectionate than bitchy. "You're gonna need to ice that, and I'll have to wrap it again once some of the swelling's gone down. So, eye, both ankles, your knee - one or both? Anything else?" Kate pins him with look that says _don't you dare lie to me_.

"Both knees - I might've fallen out've a tree. They're just bruised up. SHIELD checked and x-rayed pretty much everything."

"Okay. I'll get you ice packs."

"Kate-" she'd missed him setting down the water bottle, but he must've because he grabs her wrist. "I wasn't avoiding you on purpose. It wasn't-"

Whatever irritation or frustration she'd managed to ramp up had pretty much deflated when she'd seen him on the couch all banged up. Most of it had been redirected at SHIELD and Fury for spiriting him away, anyhow.

"I know. I wasn't either."

"But maybe... do you think the universe is trying to tell us something?"

Her eyes flashed. "I'm going to pretend you didn't actually just say that, Clint Barton." 

"I don't want to screw us up, Katie-Kate." He stopped, like he was trying to find the right way to say whatever was going through his mind. 

"Out with it, whatever it is. Just say it."

"I think you're the person I can't afford to screw things up with. Or to lose. Of all... I think that might be the last thing. The very last thing." He looks so desperate, so damn _scared_ that she can't stand it. She wants her cocky, sheepish, thick-headed partner back.

She wants her best friend back, and in one piece. Not hurting and afraid like this.

"I'm not going anywhere, Clint. Not the way you mean. I meant it when I said the only reason this would screw us up is if we didn't talk about it. If it's not something you want, I can live with that. I can enjoy that it happened, and get the hell over it because I'm a big girl. That doesn't mean I'm going to leave."

"What if I do want it? What if I want it now, and then I turn around and a few months - even a few years - down the line, I fuck up? I'm pretty good at that."

"Yep. You are. Guess what? I could fuck things up too. What if I go out and do something stupid? I don't plan to."

"I don't exactly _plan_ to screw things up, either, Kate. Doesn't mean it won't happen."

"Doesn't mean it will. All you can do is try your best, and I've seen your best, Barton. When you're at your best, you're pretty damn fantastic."

That gets him, at least some, because the grin she loves so much takes over his face. "I am pretty good, aren't I?" he asks, and she thinks maybe he's trying to leer at her but with the ice and his eye like that it's more ridiculous than anything else.

"Right now, you're not in any shape for us to do anything anyway." She tugs her hand away and goes into the kitchen. "And I'd be here doing this, regardless, right?" she adds, and throws the bag of beans in his direction. "Put those on your ankle, doofus. Looks like we threw the peas out after you hit your head, so I'm gonna have to run to the store for some things." 

She's pulling on her coat and opening the door, then stops and looks back over her shoulder at him. "If SHIELD, or Cap, or Tony show up and want you to go anywhere with them before I get back? Tell them to fuck off. You're officially out of commission and I've got dibs for awhile."

He smiles at her, and _yes ma'am_ 's her, and she's still grinning when she reaches the sidewalk. Maybe it's not going to be _so_ horribly awkward, after all.

*****

_Clint? Pick up the phone - no, wait, don't. You don't have the phone next to the couch, do you? This is what you get for having a **wall phone** , Clint. Don't you dare even try to get up off that couch, you're liable to brain yourself on the counter or something. I wanted to ask if you needed more aspirin, but I'll just grab an extra bottle anyway. God knows we'll use it before it expires, right? Yeah, we will. Okay, back in ten. Hawkeye out._

*****


End file.
